Don't get frustrated, though!

Often the greatest sounding idea doesn't work out. Sometimes, it does. At any rate, we're all just a bunch of geeks (non-geeks don't hang out in Internet bulletin boards!) out to have a good time building boats and paddling them.

You can actually be quite low-tech--I own but four power tools--a table saw, an ROS, a drill, and a router. I bought the router after building the Guillemot, and I didn't use the drill all that much. I used the table saw a lot (but one could borrow or rent the table saw to cut all the strips at the start of a project) and the ROS is very handy, but not entirely necessary.

It's really all just a big, friendly game of one-upmanship. You never know, you might come up with something that could blow everyone away.

(Make sure you have a great glass schedule on your boat if you plan to take the beauty out in surf!!!!!)

Happy building and paddling,
Shawn

: Wow! When I read the posts on this board I sometimes feel like I'm in a VERY
: fancy hotel, and sometime real soon, the rest of the guests are going to
: notice that I'm not wearing socks. Some of you guys just floor me! The
: things that folks do to get it just perfect is astonishing! I felt
: positively slothful when I read about the guy who glued sandpaper to a
: putty knife blade to sand in between strips. And to figure out a way to
: attach lasers to the forms to aid in alighnment? Wow!I am clearly a VERY
: low tech (standards?) builder. If my strips had a gap that was too big, I
: just leaned on the strip. To align my forms I just ran a dozen strips of
: cheap ledger board along the guidelines and nudged and fiddled until I got
: it looking ok.
: When the boat is done it will look fine. I used some white pine and mahogany
: for accents. I planed it fair and sanded it so that it was smooth. There
: are multiple flaws that you don't need to look TOO hard to find, but it
: will float and it will still be fun to play in. (In fact I went down to
: the beach today and watched the waves POUNDING in and got all disapointed
: that itsnot ready and I'm not good enough to be out playing in that sort
: of surf. It looked like it would have been a blast!)
: What this board has done is make me realise that I can make a work of art in
: addition to making a plaything. This boat will be my first, and I'm
: looking forward to paddling it. But I'm already planning the next one, and
: I've got several ideas that I want to try out including more design work,
: no staples, and using narrower strips to get a smoother flow around the
: sharp curves at the stem and stern.
: Thanks for the inspiration.
: Paul